Maddy Turns Two!

I love the age of two! Kids are totally oblivious to birthday parties and have no preconceived idea of what their birthday should look like. Well, this year, I took full advantage of that fact! On Madelyn's second birthday we were in Coulee City for a wedding, and didn't get home until after midnight, then we had church all day Sunday, and Reagan started school bright and early Monday morning. So instead of pulling my hair out trying to cram a party somewhere in between our busy weekend, we had a low-key very fun little birthday party in between church services on Sunday.

It's fun watching Madelyn get older and become her own (very independent) little person. She was semi-embarrassed by us singing, "Happy Birthday" to her, but semi-thrilled with all the attention. Sometimes she gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the other kids, so it was fun to have a special day celebrating just her.

Digging in!

Madelyn LOVES babies! So far, they are the only thing she has ever played with, (other than the toilet, sink, and cupboards). She loves to pack them around, put lipstick on them, and anything else she can think of. Here she is opening Grandpa Bob and Grandma Donna's present.

Our present to her was a stroller and a highchair for her babies, since Reagan's set was thrown out due to all the wear and tear over the years. Now she finally has her "own" toys instead of always trying to borrow "sissy's" stuff.

Feeding her baby!

Talking to Grandpa and Grandma Fox on the phone.

Did I mention Madelyn loves babies? Well, I happen to mention that to my sister and mom also...

Here is Madelyn opening another sweet little baby doll. This one says, "Mama", (which always brings a smug smile to her face when she hears it) and has a motion detector that causes it to giggle and coo every time you pass by. She dotes on it all day long...very cute!

The first thing she did was ask for help putting the binky in... very important in her world!

Opening a purse w/ pony and accessories from Meemaw and Papa and the Hagan family!

Here she is squealing! =0)

Such a good little mama...feeding her babies!

Madelyn is our little dare devil. Never have we had a child with so much energy, ambition and spunk. She is very independent, and definitely has a mind of her own. Not only is she always in motion, but she does things that you don't typically expect from a sweet little girl. She swings from bars at the park and squeals with laughter as she lets go and flies down slides that even her older brother is scared of, she's constantly getting into things she shouldn't, climbing place you think she couldn't. She is a handful that's for sure, and often has us frustrated, or shaking our heads in amazement; yet at the same time, because of her bravery and curiosity, she brings so much joy and laughter to our family. We love our crazy little girl, and pray this next little one will be a tad more on the mellow side! =0)

John and Melanie's Wedding

On Madelyn's second birthday, (August 29th), Brad had the privilege of performing his third wedding for a former youth group student. It never ceases to amaze us at how fast time flies by! Melanie was only in 8th grade when we her youth pastors, and now she's all grown up! It is such an awesome transition when they go from being your "students" to becoming your friends. Coming to Seattle has been such a fun season of life, not only do we get to see a lot of our former youth group students, but we get to go to church with them, watch their families grow, and still be a part of their lives. It is a blessing beyond measure.

Here are some super cute pictures from the wedding. Not only did Brad perform the wedding, but Reagan was the flower girl, and Josiah the ring-bearer. Brad and Reagan were flawless... Josiah, well, he kept us entertained! =0)

The rehearsal.

Josiah made me nervous at the rehearsal. He refused to walk down the aisle. I bribed him with getting a new monster truck if he did, but even that looked like it might not work...The day of the wedding arrived and bad mommy moments began... First off, I forgot that they wanted Reagan at the church in the morning so they could fix her hair...oops! So when the bridal party came up for pictures, Reagan was very noticeably the only one that didn't have her hair fixed. Oh well. She didn't say anything, and I wasn't about to point it out! Here are some cute pics of them at Scott and Jeannie's.

I love the fact that you can get boys all gussied up
but yet they still remain boys! =0)

The kids were such troopers! It was a super hot day and they had to wait forever to get their pictures taken. They were having fun playing with tractors until we started getting worried about them staining their clothes before the wedding actually started.

Josiah looked so handsome in his tux, the only thing he absolutely couldn't stand was his bow-tie. He kept pulling on it and saying, "I hate these chokers! They're choking me!"..... Brad agreed whole-heartedly!

Finally the time came for pictures, and they were well worth the wait!

I love this picture of Josiah! We asked him if he would give Melanie a kiss, and he turned his head away shyly, so Melanie leaned over and gave him a kiss instead.

We asked him to give Melanie a hug, and he was more than happy to do that!

This was Reagan's second time being a flower girl, so she knew exactly what was expected of her. She wasn't the least bit nervous, and actually rather enjoyed being the center of attention! =0)

This is probably my favorite picture of her!

Soooo cute!

The flower girls and Melanie

The wedding began, and so did my next bad mommy moment. I wish I wouldn't have felt the need to bribe Josiah to walk down the aisle. He actually did a great job on his own! We told him he had to pretend to be Nehemiah's big brother and teach him how to walk down the aisle like a big boy... he did awesome! He took his role very seriously, but was so super sweet with him. Here's a super cute pic of the two of them!

Josiah and Nehemiah

But then I had to go and ruin things. I told Josiah that if he walked down the aisle Daddy would give him a piece of candy. In my mind I envisioned Brad passing one piece of candy to him every 5 or 10 minutes whenever he started to get antsy, but instead when Josiah got to the front of the aisle Daddy unloaded his entire pocket of candy to Josiah. Although, this kept him busy for a little while, it was almost more of a distraction than anything because he smacked on it all through the service...

Digging for candy!

About this time during the service, I think the sugar was kicking in!

Although he didn't do anything outrageously embarrassing, the entire service, I was frantically making all kinds of "sit-down", and "be quiet" motions...something a four year old knows nothing about. During the candle-lighting, he managed to walk to the center of the stage so he could get an up close and personal view of the couple lighting the candle... I was slightly panicked he was going to blow out the candles, but he behaved! Then later in the service, he got bored and sprawled out on the stairs, only to later start crawling underneath the communion table... Oh the joys of mothering! =0) I had lots and lots of comments after the wedding about all the entertainment he provided! All of them were very sweet, and reassuring comments like, "I was actually hoping he would have blown out the candles!" But I'm sure most of them were just glad it was not their son up there goofing around! All in all, he did a great job! And how you can be upset with the poor little guy when he keeps flashing this super sweet smile!

Camping in Lake Chelan

I was shocked when Brad asked me if I wanted to go camping in Chelan this summer. Normally, it's like pulling teeth to get him to go, and the whole time we're there he's complaining about sleeping in a tent, or the bugs that are flying around his food, or the noise... and the list goes on.
I love to camp, but had resigned myself to the fact that it was probably not something our family was going to be enjoying. Don't you love it when you give up a desire, and it comes back around?...I was pleasantly surprised when Brad asked me what I thought about going camping with some of his college buddies and their families. It took me about two seconds to tell him it was a fabulous idea, and a few days later we were on our way! I snapped a bajillion pictures, thinking it could very well be our last camping trip. But we had so much fun, (the kids still talk about it), so I'm hoping there are more trips in the years to come! This picture below is by far my favorite! It was actually just a random picture I snapped as the guys were teasing each other... but I love it!
There were 10 children, and six adults...crazy but so much fun! It was a madhouse of sword fights, home-run derby matches, burying each other at the beach, and causing mayhem...

Here's the clan!

They spent almost the entire day at the beach, except for meals and naps!

What good is sand, if you can't bury somebody?!

Madelyn was probably the most enthralled with digging.
She loved having her own personal shovel!

Digging away!

Of course, Josiah became "friends" with a little boy
who had tractors he could play with! =0)

We stopped by Steve Shoop's place in Wenatchee on the way,
and he loaded us up with a huge box of amazing peaches!
Sooooo good! Madelyn enjoying her juicy peach on the beach!

Don't you love boys?! A little sword fighting before bedtime!

Brad doing a little sword-fighting himself! =0)

Not only did the kids have a blast together, but it was fun for the adults to just unwind. Every night after the kids were in bed, we met around the campfire, ate chips and salsa, and talked about life. We are all pastors and have 3+ kids, so this alone made for lots of stories and laughter. Good times.

Enjoying an awesome steak dinner! Sooo good!

Madelyn was exhausted and ready for bed,
so she curled up on this floatie!

Daddy woke us up with hot chocolate from Starbucks one morning...What a guy!

I love these "sleepy-head" pictures!

Reagan and Brad on the go-karts

Josiah and Brad on the go-karts
Yikes! Josiah needed a haircut badly!!!

Poor Maddy is crying because she's not tall enough to go on the go-karts!

We had a little surprise from Chad and Kristen on the last night of our camping trip. Each person (adult and child) were required to wear mandatory costumes...

Brad, Chad, and Brandon

The guys got way into their role as hillbillies!
They perched themselves right next to the walking trail
so they could heckle everybody that passed by!
I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time!

Josiah and Daddy

Jenean and Kristen

There is one advantage of being the photographer you don't have to be in any of the pictures! =0)